Published: January 24, 2026
◆
“Sister…”
Nagisa’s worried voice pulled Fuuka back to reality.
It had felt like a dream, but the sword she held quietly proved it was not.
“Are you alright…?”
Fuuka exhaled deeply once, then nodded slowly.
“Yeah. I’m fine. Thank you, Nagisa.”
She expressed her gratitude to Nagisa and then turned her back to her, starting to walk away.
“W-wait!”
Nagisa called out to Fuuka, then cast healing magic on her.
“I’m sorry. Right now, this is the only magic I can use…”
“That’s not true. You saved me. Now, I don’t feel like I could lose to anyone.”
Fuuka smiled at Nagisa and resumed walking.
When she reached the hole in the wall that Kiryu had kicked open, she looked down into the front yard.
Ahead, Kiryu stood in the exact same posture as before.
No sign of a follow-up attack, no indication he had moved.
As if from the very start, he had no intention of moving from there.
Noticing her presence, Kiryu quietly opened his eyes.
The moment his gaze caught Fuuka, his eyes widened just slightly.
“…I see. So this is the princess’s resolve.”
Fuuka, standing before him, was no longer the same as before.
The blade of the sword in her hand had turned a gentle pale cherry blossom pink, and the faint glow emanating from the shimmering blade blurred the air with a sakura mist.
But above all, what had changed most—were her eyes.
Within the blackness, a faint pale cherry blossom hue shone, petals of light blooming quietly.
The cursed sword she held was named—White Sakura.
At this moment, she truly lived up to that name.
“—I’m coming, Sensei.”
“Yes. This time, show me everything, princess!”
Just like at the first stage, Fuuka closed the distance with distance shrinking.
Kiryu responded, slightly shifting his weight.
Once again, his future sight slammed countless futures at Fuuka.
The blades never crossed.
Only their slight movements triggered and rewrote the next futures.
The one-hundredth of a difference Fuuka couldn’t close still existed.
Kiryu’s skill and experience surpassed hers.
The number of sword techniques Kiryu could choose from was far greater than Fuuka’s.
To counter them all accurately—her skill alone wasn’t enough.
Still, Fuuka was no longer alone.
She possessed a power that compensated for the gap she couldn’t fill.
(I’ll cut them all down!)
With her sword, she overlapped her strikes on the futures she saw.
She anticipated Kiryu’s advances and sealed them off.
Yet, there were futures she couldn’t reach to cut.
At that moment, the sakura mist rising from the cursed sword’s blade wove slashes that melted into the wind.
Filling the gaps in the futures she could not reach, that slashing light one by one robbed Kiryu of his choices.
The demonic energy accompanying Fuuka surely supported her.
Kiryu chose a new future.
Fuuka cut it down, and the demonic energy supplemented the missing moves.
In this battle of wits, Kiryu’s options were whittled away one by one, and soon the future converged.
Then—
Reality caught up with the future scene.
Kiryu’s final chosen swordstroke.
Fuuka’s single slash deflected it squarely.
“—Ngh!?”
A tiny but definite opening appeared.
Fuuka wasn’t about to miss it.
“—Zero Cherry Blossom.”
Her returning sword described a soft, unwavering arc.
The pale cherry blossom blade reached her master.
“To think you’ve mastered such swordsmanship…”
As if savoring the growth of his disciple,
“—Well done.”
Kiryu’s lips curved into a smile as he weakly dropped to his knees.
In that collapsing figure was no defeat, but rather a certain pride.
◇
“Fuuka-nee! Kiryu-sensei!”
Nagisa hurried over from deeper in the mansion, stumbling but determined in her tattered shrine maiden attire.
Fuuka heard her voice and turned around.
Her eyes, like the blade of the cursed sword, had returned to normal.
“Nagisa, thank you for earlier. Thanks to you, I didn’t lose anything.”
“No, thank you. Because you came, I was able to get outside like this.”
The two exchanged a brief, gentle look.